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Easing the pain of hospital stays, Olathe woman creates Shadow BuddiesTM to help young Patients

Twelve-year-old Miles Postlethwait has been in and out of the hospital since he was born with multiple congenital defects.

During one hospital stay, the Olathe boy told his parents he wished he had a friend "just like me," someone who had similar defects and, more importantly, someone who could share his feelings of loneliness, fears and frustrations.

Miles realized that other disease-stricken children who spent countless days in the hospital also needed such a friend. He would often hear lonely children crying in their hospital rooms while he and his parents walked the halls.

Miles' mother Marty Postlethwait, decided to find that little friend for her son and other children who spend a lot of time in the hospital. She did research and later developed Shadow Buddies, a line of dolls that are customized to have the same illness as that of the child who receives it.

The dolls made their debut last November, but you won't see them at retail stores--at least not yet. Civic organizations and hospitals, many of them through corporate sponsors, are buying the dolls and distributing them at no cost to sick children.

Now president of her own company, appropriately called Shadow Buddies, Postlethwait has sold about 4,000 Shadow Buddies dolls at $10 apiece. About 10,000 more dolls are being ordered to meet demand.

Virtually every hospital in the Kansas City area has received the dolls, including Children's Mercy Hospital, Overland Park Regional Medical Center, University of Kansas Medical Center and the Infant Development Center at Shawnee Mission Medical Center.

In addition, 21 hospitals in other states have been among Postlethwait's customers.

The success of Shadow Buddies has even exceeded Postlethwait's expectations.

"I knew there would be a big need for something like this," she said, "There has never been a product manufactured like this in which the patient actually gets to keep the product. I am very excited. This is my way of giving back to the hospital and nursing community."

Shadow Buddies help children cope with their illness or disease and give them a more positive perspective about themselves, Postlethwait said. Each doll has a smiling face and heart-shaped eyes, and is dressed in a child-print hospital gown. There are both white Shadow Buddies and black Shadow Buddies.

Miles, in fact, helped design Shadow Buddies. His thumb mark appears on all the dolls as a trademark.

"I just hope they make them (sick children) feel better," Miles said about the dolls.

From every indication, they have.

"The doll gives the child feedback that it is OK to be a little different. I think that is important," Postlethwait said. "It doesn't talk back but it is something to talk to. The kids just love them. Parents love them as well. I get a lot of thank-you's from parents. That is special. Shadow Buddies, because of the way they are custom made, can be used to teach a child about their particular disease."

For example, the "Ostomy Buddy," for children like Miles who have had colostomies, has a stoma. The "Cancer Buddy" has thinning hair; a surgical mask, which cancer patients wear to protect them from germs; and a catheter in the chest for radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

On the Shadow Buddies dolls for young heart disease patients is a chest incision and a mended heart.

We've used the dolls to teach the kids what will happen to them," said Veronica Walsh, a cardiology nurse at Children's Mercy Hospital. "If the child gets an (intravenous injection), the doll can get one. If the child gets a bandage, the doll can get one, too. The doll goes through the same things as the child.

"The dolls seem to help the children out a lot. A lot of them use the dolls for a good hug."

Postlethwait has also developed dolls for children having same-day surgery. "It has no defects on it but can be adapted to what needs to be done," she said, adding that she wants to make the dolls available to ambulance companies to give to children that are transferred to the hospitals.

Another Shadow Buddies doll comes with no face or defects, but it is still extremely special. A hospital in New York gives the dolls to abused children.

"They let the children draw their own face on the doll so they can see how they perceive themselves," Postlethwait said. "They can tell a lot of what a child thinks about themselves."

Postlethwait, whose husband, Eric, recently joined Shadow Buddies full time to help run the company, is planning new types of Shadow Buddies dolls. A diabetes doll for children with diabetes is in production now, and another doll for young kidney patients is set to be introduced soon. Dolls for crippled children, burned children and youngsters with sickle cell anemia are in the works.

A company in Wisconsin manufactures Shadow Buddies dolls for Postlethwait, who works out of the Johnson County Business Tech Center, the county's business incubator, in Lenexa.

Postlethwait said she has no plans now to make the dolls available at retail stores, although she added that could change in the future.

"The only reason I won't go retail is because I will lose control of keeping the cost down for the dolls," she said of the $10 price of the dolls. "I am not in this necessarily to make money."

Postlethwait said adults, including senior citizens, have requested Shadow Buddies, not for ailing children but for themselves. The dolls are also popular with teenage patients at Children's Mercy Hospital, Walsh said.

"I have learned that comfort has no age limit," Postlethwait said.

People Magazine Article